Employer costs for employee compensation, March 2014

June 12, 2014

Among workers in private industry and state and local government, employer costs for employee compensation averaged $31.93 per hour worked in March 2014; the wages and salaries portion of these costs averaged $21.96 per hour worked (68.8 percent), and the benefits portion averaged $9.97 (31.2 percent). In March 2004, total compensation costs were $24.95 per hour worked, with wages and salaries for that year averaging $17.71 (71.0 percent) and benefits averaging $7.23 (29.0 percent).

The average cost for health insurance benefits in private industry was $2.36 per hour worked in March 2014 (7.9 percent of total compensation). In March 2004, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.53 per hour worked (6.6 percent of total compensation).

These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. All workers include those in the private nonfarm economy excluding households and those in the public sector excluding the federal government. To learn more, see “Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — March 2014” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL‑14‑1075.

Self-employment in the United States
Trends in self-employment by various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, including both the unincorporated and the incorporated self-employed, as well as data on paid employees who work for the self-employed.